UNITED NATIONS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Sudanese government on Tuesday to implement relevant agreements reached with the United Nations and the African Union (AU) on the deployment of peacekeepers to Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

    "While we were encouraged by the positive signs we have received from the Sudanese Government, the more important thing is how to implement these agreements into action," Ban told reporters after concluding a two-day high-level meeting with African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare.

    "Both the United Nations and African Union have agreed and intend to move swiftly for the implementation of this agreement, so that we can finish the heavy support package and move on to the third phase, finally deploying a hybrid operation in Darfur," he said.

    The United Nations, the African Union and the Sudanese government agreed in November last year on the three-phase support plan, also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

    With the first phase of the plan, a light support package, already underway, the three parties reached an agreement in principle in Addis Ababa on April 9 to inaugurate the second phaseof a UN support plan for the AU mission in Darfur, known as "the heavy support phase."

    But the Sudanese government's opposition to the deployment of attack helicopters in Darfur had blocked the scheduled implementation of the second phase.

    Earlier Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received a letter from Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem that confirmed Sudan's approval of "the helicopters component" of the heavy support package for the AU force, a move welcomed by Ban and the UN Security Council.